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This year’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote was chock full of expected updates, along with a handful of little surprises. So let’s recap!

The most anticipated revelations were the updates to iOS 7. The main design change is a move away from the current bubble-like interface in favor of a flatter design. There’s also a new, simplified “Control Center”—accessible via an upward swipe on the home screen—to find frequently used buttons like brightness settings, airplane mode, and a flashlight. One of the most surprisingly awesome features includes a block function for unwanted phone calls, texts, FaceTime calls, and iMessages.

In a nod to the unlucky ones who have lost or had their phones stolen, the Find My iPhone feature now requires an Apple ID and password to be turned off or to erase the device. In addition, Apple also says it can “continue to display a custom message even after your device is erased. And your Apple ID and password are required before anyone can reactivate it. Which means your iPhone is still your iPhone.”

Mavericks—not just for surfers anymore

Apple also announced the latest iteration to OS X. Doing away with the feline-themed codenames, Apple has decided to switch to California-themed names. As such, OS X 10.9 has been dubbed “Mavericks” after a popular surfing spot just south of San Francisco—but unlike the immediate satisfaction of surfing, Mavericks won’t be available until fall 2013.

So what’s new here? There’s a bunch of stuff, but here are the highlights:

There’s iCloud Keychain (a password manager), which “stores your website user names and passwords on the devices you’ve approved, protects them with robust AES 256-bit encryption, and keeps them up to date on each device. And it automatically fills [the passwords] in whenever and wherever you need them. The new Password Generator suggests unique, hard-to-guess passwords for your online accounts.”

10.9 will have a tabbed Finder—just like in your Web browser. (If you’re like me, sometimes you have four or five Finder windows open at a time, so this will come in handy.)

There’s a new ability to tag documents, which should make searching for documents that much easier.

Apple created a new ability to use multiple screens—no more secondary display! Each monitor will have its own menu bar, dock, or the ability to run individual apps at full screen. Apple even says that you can wirelessly turn an HDTV into a normal display via AirPlay or Apple TV.

Finally, just like in iOS, there's a new Notifications interface, which can now display e-mail, news updates, or iMessages from a locked login screen. As usual, we'll have a hands-on and review for both iOS 7 and Mavericks as soon as we can get our paws on the updates.

Hardware heros: New MacBook Airs and the all-new Mac Pro

Of course, Mavericks needs some new hardware to go along with it, right? Apple didn’t disappoint in that department either: the company introduced new Haswell-based MacBook Air laptops, whose biggest feature appears to be the “12-hour battery life” on the 13-inch model, with nine hours on the 11-incher. (We can’t wait to actually test this out.) Haswell is the codename for Intel’s new CPUs that come with integrated GPUs—the MBAs specifically have a 1.3GHz Intel Core i5-4250U, which includes Intel's new HD 5000 GPU. The GPU reportedly offers 40 percent faster graphics. The MBAs also sport boosted Wi-Fi capabilities with 802.11ac-capable adapters.

Meanwhile, Apple has shrunk down its top-of-the-line desktop, the Mac Pro, into a sleek, tiny, and portable design. Built in a black cylindrical case, all of the computer’s key guts (CPU, memory, graphics) are built into a “thermal core” designed to blow the heat vertically out of the machine. It has “configurations offering up to 12 cores of processing power, up to 40GBps of PCI Express gen 3 bandwidth, and 256-bit-wide floating-point instructions,” according to Apple’s website, along with a AMD FirePro workstation-class GPU and up to 6GB of dedicated VRAM. Unfortunately, Apple didn’t issue a release beyond “later this year,” nor did it announce a price.

Enlarge/ Apple's new iTunes Radio will have a direct purchase feature.

Come fly with me: From AirPort to iCloud

Both of those new hardware refreshes, of course, wouldn’t be complete without an improved networking kit, too. With 802.11ac support in both the MacBook Air and the Mac Pro, clearly Apple was going to have to update its wireless hardware—Express, Extreme, and Time Capsule—in due course. One of the advantages of 802.11ac is that it includes a "beamforming antenna array,” which “creates a more focused signal that extends range and lessens the possibility of signals interfering with each other." The AirPort products will support simultaneous dual-band transmissions over the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, a feature already included in the 802.11n versions of the hardware.

With all this connectivity, you’re probably going to want a few new apps to go with the new speedy Wi-Fi. Apple also announced iWork for iCloud, bringing its suite of productivity apps—you guessed it—to the cloud. In short, you’ll be able to edit a Keynote presentation or a Pages document from your browser.

Finally, Apple also launched its highly anticipated Internet radio application called “iTunes Radio.” This Pandora-like service, which will only be available in the United States for the time being, offers the ability to not only listen to songs (and command Siri to play “more of the same”), but to buy them directly from within the app as well. For iTunes Match subscribers ($25 annually), you’ll get an ad-free experience, too.

Which new announcement, product, or feature are you most excited about? We’ll meet you in the comments section.

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Cyrus Farivar
Cyrus is a Senior Tech Policy Reporter at Ars Technica, and is also a radio producer and author. His latest book, Habeas Data, about the legal cases over the last 50 years that have had an outsized impact on surveillance and privacy law in America, is out now from Melville House. He is based in Oakland, California. Emailcyrus.farivar@arstechnica.com//Twitter@cfarivar